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Backgammon — Rules

Goal

The first player to bring all 15 checkers home and bear them off wins the game. The first to reach the chosen number of points (1, 3, 5 or 7) wins the match.

Board and direction

The board has 24 points. Your checkers move anticlockwise; your home board is the 6 points at the bottom right (1–6). Your opponent moves the other way.

Starting

In the first game of the match each player rolls one die; the higher roll starts by rolling both dice again. Ties are re-rolled. Until the match ends, each following game is started by the winner of the previous game.

Dice and moves

• Each die is a separate move: one checker may move both numbers, or two checkers one number each.
• Doubles (e.g. 4-4) are played four times.
• You cannot land on a point held by two or more opposing checkers.
• If both dice can be played you must play both. If only one can be played and the dice differ, you must play the larger one.
• If no move is possible, your turn passes.
• If you have a checker on the bar and all six points of your opponent's home board are closed, the dice are not rolled and your turn passes at once.

Hitting

Landing on a point with a single opposing checker hits it; the checker goes to the bar. A player with a checker on the bar must enter it into the opponent's home board before making any other move.

Bearing off

Once all your checkers are home you may bear off. A die equal to a checker's point bears it off. A die higher than a checker's point may also bear that checker off, even if you have checkers on higher points (e.g. with 4-3 the checkers on points 1 and 2 may be borne off too). You may also keep moving checkers inside your home board.

Scoring

• The winner of a game scores 1 point.
• If the loser has not borne off any checkers it is a gammon: 2 points.
• There is no doubling cube in this version.

On screen

• Drag the checker you want to move: while you hold it, its possible destinations are highlighted; drop it on a highlighted point. Your finger need not be exactly on the checker, nor the checker exactly on the point: being within 2.5 checker sizes of the middle of the point is enough. If two points are near, the closer one is chosen; if they are almost equally close, neither is chosen and the checker goes back.
• The point you pick up from and the place you will drop on change colour as soon as they are clear.
• With doubles you can play several checkers from the same point together: the checker your finger is nearest to (counting from the edge) and the ones after it towards the middle of the board are held together (at most as many as your remaining moves). Each checker moves one die. Checkers on the bar are played one by one. You can also tap the checker and then a highlighted point.
• You can move the total of both dice (2, 3 or 4 dice with doubles) in one go; those destinations are highlighted too. If the move would hit an opponent's blot on an intermediate point, the total destination is not shown and you play the dice one by one.
• To bear off, drop the checker anywhere outside the board or on the bear-off tray (or tap the tray). The tray is outside the board: to the right of it when a phone is held sideways, otherwise below it (your opponent's above it). With doubles you can bear off several checkers together.
• Use Undo to take back moves within your turn. After your last move, Undo and Continue are shown for 3 seconds; if you press nothing, the turn passes to your opponent.
• If you have no legal move, your dice and the reason are shown; the turn passes when you press Got it or after 3 seconds.

Playing on KafaDinle.com

• Computer players never cheat; they cannot see your cards or any hidden information.
• Chance elements such as shuffling and dice use a secure random number generator and give no one an advantage.
• Scored / Test: a scored game counts for the leaderboard of that game and level. Test games are not recorded anywhere; they have no move timer and undo can be enabled.
• Points: at every level a win is +1, a draw 0, a loss −1. In 3–4 player games the sole winner gets +1, the last place −1, the others 0; a shared first place gets 0, a shared last place −1. Partners get the same points. The number of hands or target does not change this.
• Move time: in a scored game you must move within the time you chose (chess 20–600 s, default 240 s; other games 30–600 s, default 180 s). A countdown is shown with a warning in the last 30 seconds. Tap the countdown to mute or unmute the warning sound. End-of-hand windows do not count.
• Leaving the table: in a scored game the Exit button, starting a new game of the same kind, closing your account, losing the connection for more than 3 minutes, running out of move time and long inactivity all count as leaving:
• Leaving in the first hand or in a one-hand game is a loss (−1).
• Later, if you are in sole first place on the completed hands, no points are recorded; otherwise it is a loss.
• In partnership games: if your team is ahead you get no points and your partner +1; if level, you −1 and your partner 0; if behind, both −1.
• In chess the material is compared (pawn 1, knight 3, bishop 3, rook 5, queen 9): behind in material is a loss; level or ahead scores 0.
• Resigning in chess counts as a loss.